Small Laptop Advice

[james2k2]

Hi All,
I'm wanting a small laptop (ideally 13.3" or similar size display) but with an optical drive. LED is nice, but not needed unless standard.

The DELL XPS 13 series laptops are ideal, but come with a hefty price tag. This should give you an idea of what i'm after. I currently own both an A4 size tablet and a 15.5" standard laptop and I prefer the size and aesthetics of the tablet but it has no optical drive and requires the use of the digital pen (no finger touching here). My 15.5" laptop is simply too bulky and besides is dying a slow and painful death.

Are there any recommendations?

Kind regards,
James

 

[buwish]

Fill out the sticky thread at the top of the forum in this regard and we can better help you find a laptop (makes things easier).

 

[james2k2]

Thanks for the heads up, I didn't spot that sticky. Here goes:
1_What is your budget? About £400, can be pushed since i'm going to be saving for it anyway

2_What is the size of the notebook that you are considering? ~13.3" Display

3_What screen resolution do you want? Not bothered, something better than 1024x768

4_Do you need a portable or desktop replacement laptop? portable.

5_How much battery life do you need? anything better than 3 hours

6_Do you want to play games with your laptop? If so then please list the games that you want to with the settings that you want for these games. (Low,Medium or High)? just the usual popcap games (a P3 can run these) probably the most taxing games will be Unreal Tournament GOTY.

7_What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? (Photo / Video editing,watching movies, Etc.)
Programming mainly with some image editing in Paint.net

8_How much storage (H.D.D Capacity) do you need?
happy with anything above 60GB

9_If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post their links. Not sure yet

10_How long do you want to keep your laptop? at least 2 years


11_What kind of Optical drive do you need? DVD ROM/Writer,Bluray ROM/Writer,Etc ? dvd-rw would be fine

12_Please tell us about the brands that you prefer to buy from them and the brands that you don't like and explain the reasons. I really like the Dell XPS series due to their quality design and portability whilst retaining an optical drives. Love the design of cheaper laptops in similar sizes, but no integrated optical.

13_What country do you live in? UK


14_Please tell us any additional information if needed.
Nothing else.

 

[cadder]

You can do some searching and asking on notebookreview.com also.

The basic Dell Inspiron 13" is a good machine, and lots of companies make reasonable 13" machines. I got a new 13" ultralight this past Christmas, a Toshiba T135. It is thin and light, with dual core processor and very good battery life, but no internal optical drive. I bought the same machine for my daughter and also bought an external DVD drive for us to share, but since I first loaded a few apps on my machine I have not used the drive anymore. My wife has a 12" Toshiba with dual core processor AND internal DVD drive, but it was a more expensive machine than mine. There are lots of new thin and light machines in the 13" range that have good battery life but no internal optical drive.

 

[james2k2]

Hi,
Thanks for your reply! Sounds like you've done well from your choices Can you also remember what model her 12" is?

I have still been looking myself and found that Lenovo do some real nice machines for low prices, I even considered something like the s10-3t for just under £400 (inc VAT and P&P), no optical but its also only got a 10" multi-touch display.